Sign discussed at length during August meeting of Travel and Tourism

At the August Travel & Tourism meeting, treasurer Audra Dominguez gave the financial report and said that their most recent tourism lodging tax revenue deposit in July was $20,847.74. The previous year in the same month, the lodging tax revenue collected was $32,210.84. The board voted and passed the approval to accept the financial report with the addition of fixing a reconciliation error for a missing check.

Board member Mike Sinclair asked guest Jim Mathewson to share with the board some of their previous discussions.

Mathewson said, “I asked him about a sign on Sixth Street hanging way up above a brick building.” The location he was referring to is next to the real estate office. Dominguez noted that the owner of the billboard charges $800 per month for its rental. 

Mathewson continued and said, “When people drive through this town. It just stares at them and what’s wrong with this town? On the other hand, it has ‘swim, stay, float’ whatever it is. And in most towns I’ve ever lived in, the city has the authority whether they want to use it or not to tell somebody to clean that up. And you’ve got signs down by the old Subway, half of a sign. When people see that coming through town, they make decisions about the town. And, I just think there’s a lot of things as you come through this town that would signal to people, ‘let’s keep going’.” 

Mathewson added, “I met a fella here last year who was in town looking for a place to move his business, and he was very impressed. The first afternoon he went out to the state park he went to downtown that one block area was very impressive to him. Two days later, he was leaving, and he said, I spent time driving around town and there’s no pride of place here. He said, they obviously don’t have any zoning or any rules about what you can do with your property or whether it’s falling down, whether it has to be repaired in some way. And he said he wouldn’t be back. He was looking for a place to move his little manufacturing company, and I see that as I drive around town, there’s very little pride of place.” 

Mathewson continued and said, “One of your people who was running for county commissioner today at a candidate meeting forum took the position that if you own a piece of property, you can do anything you want with it and there’s nothing anybody should be able to tell you. I can tell you as somebody who’s lived in a community where they have good rules, those protect property values. Everyone hates HOA, but the primary purpose of an HOA or a compliance officer in a community is to protect the property values of everybody, and that’s not happening here.

He added a live and let live attitude fosters no pride of place. “That sign is an indication of the town’s attitude,” he said. 

Mathewson also said, “I’m a member of the Lions Club in Arizona. I spend half a year, year after year there, and when I saw the Lions sign on the outskirts of town, I’m looking forward to meeting them. You had a discussion here at the last meeting about your electronic sign going to be up there by the highway department where the Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary sign is. I wrote to the Chamber of Commerce twice and asked when does the Lions Club meet? They sent me a note that said, next Thursday night at 6:15 at the Senior Citizens Center. I went. There wasn’t a car within two blocks. There is no Lions Club here. It’s defunct, Lions Clubs International told me, it’s defunct. I think the same thing is going to be said about the Kiwanis Club. Take the signs down.”

Director Angie Guyon responded that they can “definitely talk about that under our Destination Funds” on their agenda. “I’ve taken care of all of that in the last two weeks.” Guyon added that the medallions on the coming digital sign will have active organizations, which include the Masons and the Rotary Club.

Dominguez also said that two different chapters of PEO (Philanthropic Educational Organization) may also be included. They do fundraisers for scholarships and other activities.

The board’s discussion with Mathewson returned to the billboard on 6th Street and its cost of $800 per month for rental. They said they could try to talk to them again and that previously they discussed purchasing the sign.

Mathewson said, “I think maybe it’d be appropriate for you to ask the mayor what the city could do for you from a compliance standpoint.”

Board member William Robinson replied, “That’s a good point you brought because I definitely talked to the mayor recently about almost the exact same thing.”

Robinson added about Jackson and how they function and said he asked Mayor Adam Estenson, “Is there some kind of regulation where they have to have a facade of some sort to match the town? And, he said that they were meeting on that here within the next few weeks, and that was about a month ago. So it’s about that exact same thing. At least they recognize it.”

Mathewson then described how there was a safety issue at a local business where he believed someone “could get their eye poked out.”

Mathewson said he mentioned it to the mayor and it got fixed. “He saw the liability, and he knew that I would make a record of it. So, he’s not unreasonable.”

Editors note: This was a lengthy discussion held during the T & T meeting that included a lot of information stated by the guest speaker, Mathewson. The quoted information represents his opinion and findings only.